Coach Fletcher pushed his bangs out of his eyes. “Break into two lines, girls.” Sophia waited to see who would go where and decided on the line opposite Patty’s, wanting to be as far from her as possible.
“We are going to do passing drills. Patty and Sophia, you are up first.”
Patty rolled her eyes. “Can someone else go? I need to tie my shoe,” she faked.
“We can wait.” Coach Fletcher looked at her pointedly.
After retying her shoe, Patty stood, and Coach Fletcher threw her the ball.
“Now, shuffle your feet and pass the ball back and forth to get from one end of the court to the other. Next two, when they reach half-court, then you follow suit.” He blew his whistle to signal that they should begin.
Patty threw the ball hard to Sophia, but she caught it. To Sophia’s surprise, they made it down the court without once dropping theball. After going over the passing drill several times, Coach moved on to dribbling skills. Fifteen minutes before the end of practice, he broke the girls down into teams of two. The returning girls wore red pinnies over their tops; Sophia and the newer recruits wore blue pinnies. Sophia and the girls in blue lost two to twelve to the red team. When Coach Fletcher blew his whistle to end the game, Sophia was out of breath, and her chest was soaked through.
“Huddle up, girls,” Coach Fletcher called, and passed out the practice and game schedules. Then he took down the girls’ uniform sizes and preferred numbers for their jerseys. As the girls headed to the locker room, Coach signaled to Sophia. “Hey, you played really well today.”
“Thank you.”
He lowered his voice. “Normally, we only allow trainers on the court. Do you need a pair?”
Sophia’s mouth went dry. “I forgot to pack them, and I won’t be going home for a while. I could ask my—”
“We have extra tennis shoes in the office, left over from previous gym years. Write down your size.” He extended the clipboard. “Then arrive a few minutes early to practice tomorrow, and I’ll have them ready for you,” he said with a kind smile.
Sophia wanted to hug him.
“Go, Bears,” he said, pointing to the mascot in the center of the court.
“Go, Bears.” She smiled.
When Sophia hobbled out of the girls’ gym, she heard loud voices coming from across the hall. A gang of giant-size boys streamed out of their gym in groups of three and four, bantering loudly and horseplaying. Max was pulling a windbreaker over his T-shirt when they spotted each other. Sophia tried not to let the delight of running into him reach her face.
“Did the book help?” He gave her a sloppy grin.
“Actually, it did. Too bad I didn’t have enough energy to make it through practice because you ate half of my cookie,” she teased.
“Seriously, you couldn’t possibly be holding on to that cookie from the other day.” Max chuckled. “You should carry a piece of fruit with you to eat before practice, anyway. That’ll give you real energy.”
Max held the door to the athletic center for her. The night air was cool, and she could see a sliver of the quarter-moon shining through the branches of the walnut tree. They walked in silence, and the cacophony of night creatures hemming and hawing reminded her of home. Sophia racked her brain for something to talk about.
“Where are you from?” she asked, remembering Louis’s question to her.
“Silver Spring.”
“In Maryland?”
He nodded.
“I’m from Prince Frederick. But that’s way down south,” she said. “Do you have any sisters or brothers?”
“Nope, only child. I have a bunch of cousins, though. An older cousin who is like my brother; we grew up in the same neighborhood.”
They wandered through the quad. “What made you come to Forest?” she asked.
“My mom’s a teacher. When she heard that Forest was opening their door to Negro students, she was first in line with my application.”
“But did you want to come here?”
“I don’t recall really having a choice, to be honest. How about you?”
